By and large, tillage farmers love what they do. Recently I was chatting to a cheery, elderly man who I’d know reasonably well. He’s decidedly old school and wouldn’t be seen without a tie or hat, which I think is nice.

I won’t pigeonhole him as a farmer as he has substantial business interests, but nonetheless he still runs a tidy hands-on tillage enterprise on his own land.

I’m also reluctant to call him a hobby farmer as that suggests he’s less commercial than the rest of us, which wouldn’t be true. In the same way as some might categorise Michael O’Leary as a hobby farmer, but you can be sure his farming operations are run with the same military-like precision as his airline and would put the rest of us to shame.

He’s but one example of many tillage farmers who really like – even love – what they do.

Anyhow, back to the man with the hat. You’d imagine that at his age he wouldn’t be bothered growing corn – as he’d say himself – but no, he still gets a buzz out of planting seeds in the March dust and I suspect he will carry on as he is, until he gets the final harvest call from the eternal cornfields.

He’s but one example of many tillage farmers who really like – even love – what they do. I doubt there are too many dairy farmers, especially with an off-farm income, who would opt to carry on milking cows into their 80s.

But who could blame dairy farmers?

I’d rather be 1,000ft below Navan in the dripping darkness digging out zinc than be tied to the chore of milking cows. But robotic milkers will change all this and there’ll be a new breed of cheery dairy farmers loving the freedom from the daily monotony of the parlour. They may even willingly work on into their 80s like the tillage man with the hat.

In the fields

The fine weather for the last week in March brought further joy to tillage farmers. With fields drying out and good spraying conditions, there was lots to do.

All the wheat has received the first round of plant growth regulator (PGR) and the nitrogen has been brought up to around 70% of the total. The remainder will go on in mid-April.

I like Broadway Star as there are no known resistant wild oats and it works better in less than optimum spraying conditions

As the nights were chilly and growth only moderate, I used the PGR K2, which is more effective in these early spring conditions, which is about a week earlier than usual.

I also included Broadway Star to tidy up on a few broadleaf weeds and to control sterile brome and wild oats. I like Broadway Star as there are no known resistant wild oats and it works better in less than optimum spraying conditions.

The beans (Lynx) went in on 29 March. Date-wise, I’m happy with that but while the field was dry on top, it wasn’t good underneath and there were lots of wet spots. Not good enough conditions to sow spring barley into but the beans will be fine. The barley will have to wait.

It was also the first outing for the new Fendt 724 with the Sprinter drill. I have to be honest and say that I’m disappointed with its ability to pull the drill. It’s meant to have 60hp more than the previous drill tractor, the Fendt 718, but it’s not obvious. Modern tractors with Adblue and all sorts of ECUs and EGRs and a million other things seem to lack gutsy power.

So, was I a happy bunny after drilling the beans? No, I wasn’t and Mrs P would have happily swapped me for a dairy farmer – one with a robot.